Review of Livedrive Online Data Backup Service
Read the full and in-depth review about LiveDrive Online Data Backup Service, which has been in business since 2008. It is one of the companies that offers an unlimited data backup plan. Let's find out what else it has to offer.
Livedrive is an online backup solution, which has been in business since 2008 and still has over one million clients, and it offers an array of cloud storage options. The company's goal is to offer effortless online storage while delivering essential fruits for their clients to manage and share files halfway around the globe.
Livedrive is not just an online backup solution, it is your online personal storage space. It enables users
to access all data on the Livedrive storage right from theirs personal computer, much like an external drive. It is one of the cloud backup services that offers an unlimited Cloud space for data storage, so you can backup each and every data on your system without being concerned about exceeding any limits, and you can access stored data from anywhere on the planet on multiple devices at one time. Livedrive now offers three services: a backup-only plan, a syncing service called Briefcase and a Pro Suite. The backup-only plan features unlimited backup of a single PC, now available for $7 per month fee - but only if you are willing to pay for 2 years upfront, if not, you'd have to pay $8 per month. Then there is a syncing service called Briefcase, which provides up to 2TB of cloud storage space starting from $16 per month. The Pro Suite comes with 5TB of sync space and unlimited data backup space starting with $25 per month. Finally, there is a business pack that features additional goodies such as cloud collaboration and web sharing, and it sets you back $37 per month. Let's find out whether Livedrive is a good deal for your business or not.Setup, UI & Features of Livedrive
Once you have successfully signed up for a plan, you'll have to download the software client that suits your computer's operating system. The setup process is pretty flexible and easy. First of all, the software will prompt you to enter login details that you gave during the sign-up process. After you have logged in, it automatically proceeds the installation process by selecting the default folders to backup and finish the installation. The backup will just run in the background, silently uploading contents in selected directories as they change. Livedrive user interface is not very user-friendly to starters. Its settings are spread out here and there and they are not easy-to-use. You can access its settings and other critical features, including Manage and restore backups, detailed status and web portal from the system notification tray. From there you can set more backup folders, sync folders, bandwidth level, security, drive letter and more. Some of these can be left alone as their default options are normally good enough. Wiping out data from the backup set must be done from the web portal, which is a bit pesky. I think that their web interface is less difficult to browse through. I did like its signature potential to edit pics and documents right from the web UI. This would be especially handy if, for instance, you would have to edit a document while you are away from home. You just have to log in to your web portal, finish editing, and then restore edited content later once you reach home. I also liked its ability to stream media file to other computers directly from the Livedrive storage.
Of course, Livedrive lets you customize how often you want to run the backup. By default, it is set as once per day, however, you can opt 'realtime' if you would like to backup contents throughout the day. I did find that encryption is not enabled by default in settings windows while the majority of services in this space enabled this option by default on their software client, and I think this is one of the biggest flaws in this service. The syncing feature only comes with Livedrive Briefcase plan, generally, whenever you edit the data, the partition will instantly sync to reflect the modifications to any other device that uses your Livedrive user login details. Restoring files can be annoying as you can only download data one-by-one from their web portal, but the newer version can manage entire nested directories as well. Livedrive keeps up to 30 versions of every file, which means you can always go back in time and back out the changes if anything goes wrong. I'm not denying the fact that Livedrive provides 30 file versions of every file, which is fine but not that great considering many services offer unlimited versions.
With the Pro Suite, Livedrive isn't limited on functionalities. This brings together the potency of both the Backup and Briefcase plans. Users can share all kinds of data publicly, which creates a web link to the file. Users can also choose to share data privately, which Livedrive can manage without the receiver creating a Livedrive account. When sharing files privately, the e-mail address of the individuals you intend to share with, get a private link within their e-mail to download your data. Users can simply send huge files to anybody without having to worry about email storage space or transferring limits.
One of the exciting features of Livedrive is its potential to create personalized email addresses, which can be used to upload data to Livedrive's storage space. Users can make use of these addresses to forward attachments from their own email address, or share with family and friends so that the data they send out are right away uploaded to Livedrive cloud storage. Another useful feature come with Livedrive cloud service is that the application will automatically identify if you're attempting to share data between devices that are on the same exact network. When this takes place, the software will make certain that your data are transferred via LAN so you would get maximum upload/download rates.
When it comes to security, Livedrive takes it very seriously and uses military grade AES-256 encryption to save your data on their cloud servers. For maximum security, like many other popular services, Livedrive also stores your data across multiple servers so your data would be safe and sound if anything goes wrong in one of their data centers.
Finally, talking about Livedrive support, they offer 24 hours a day email support. If your are a Briefcase or Pro Suite user, you get top priority, though usually all emails get the response within a day. They also provide phone support, but no live chats available and, of course, it is a bit disappointing. On their support page, they have a knowledge base, a well answered FAQ section, tutorials and an active community forum, where Livedrive issues can be discussed with other Livedrive users and community moderators. Conclusion
Livedrive does come with some unique features, and it is one of the few online backup services that provide unlimited data backup plan, though I must say, upload speed is not that impressive as you find in other popular services. With unlimited data backup in every plan, it is a great online backup option if you would like to backup hefty files, which include Movies or Music files, as well as standard documents stored on your computer. Unlike many others, its application doesn't have an user-friendly interface, though it not a memory hog. In closing, I would like to say it is good for those who are searching for unlimited data backup and top quality service at the cheapest rate. But if you really need good backup speed and user-friendly application to manage your files, this is not the one you need.
